What I did instead

 I missed the letter U.  I missed the letter V.  Instead, I took some nice long walks by myself.  Isn't this bull goose a handsome lad?  And I wrote a free-verse poem about some of the local geese:

Do Geese Get Hangovers?

The grass is gray with geese, feasting in the old orchard.

But the frosty nights and sunny days have done their work

and the windfall fruit has fermented.

A pugnacious gander honks and hisses,

spreads wide his wings to intimidate another boozy goose,

wobbles in his waddle and falls.

Like any drunken punk, he flounders to his feet,

glares around, daring anyone to laugh,

grabs another nip, and staggers off for a nap,

a victim to the attack of applejack

Kyle and I went to our favorite pumpkin farm and selected three good ones.  This shot shows about one third of the choices available.  (The dark marks are just mud.)  Then I used my cool jack-o-lantern stencils and a linoleum knife and carved three neat faces.  We got lots of compliments on them.  I carve away the skin, but leave the meat.  Sometimes I have to scrape the meat thinner from the inside, but then the candle light illuminates the meat of the squash, and the whole thing glows like a lantern.

And I have been working on another baby blanket.  The mom's favorite color is brown, so I picked up some lovely hand- dyed super wash merino at the flock and fiber fest, worked 8 garter-stitch squares, and filled the center with a stockinette mitered square, decreasing two out of three rows to keep the center from forming a peak.  Stockinette is longer than garter stitch so you have to adjust when you put them together.  It's not the most attractive baby blanket I have ever made, but it's beautifully soft and warm.

Sunday we head off for another vacation - brace yourselves for pictures of tropical glories.